Stab victim taunts his foes with defiant gun gesture

This is the man who miraculously escaped with his life following a murder attempt at a Luas stop last week, defiantly making a gun gesture in a picture taken following his release from hospital.

Dary Sharif (23), originally from south Dublin but with an address in Blessington, Co. Wicklow, had to get 32 stitches following the sickening stab attack at the Milltown Green Line Luas stop last Sunday.

The knifing comes less than a year after thugs fired shots at his family home in Firhouse and the Sunday World can reveal that gardai are on high alert for further attacks.

However, Sharif can be seen making a gun gesture in a photo posted online after he got out of hospital this week, while a pal described his attackers as “rats”.

“They weren’t trying to warn him and he’d probably be dead if security guards hadn’t intervened"

Two men were arrested in connection with the attack on Sharif. One of those men has since been rushed to hospital with serious head injuries.

Two of Sharif’s associates, suspected of being low-level drug dealers, have been arrested in connection with an assault which left Sharif’s attacker with head injuries.
Sources say two men from Crumlin in south Dublin went to murder Sharif on Sunday night.

“This was a murder attempt,” the source revealed.

“They weren’t trying to warn him and he’d probably be dead if security guards hadn’t intervened.”

The men stabbed Sharif a number of times in the back, leg and neck in a frenzied attack.

Brave Luas security guards spotted the attack and rushed to restrain Sharif’s attackers. One of the security guards was stabbed in the leg during the incident and they were also pepper-sprayed.

During the incident, Sharif’s associates fought back against the Crumlin men and kicked them in the head a number of times. Sharif’s pals fled the scene before gardai arrived, but his attackers were arrested.

One of the attackers became seriously ill while in garda custody and was taken to Beaumont Hospital, where he has since undergone brain surgery.

It is suspected he received the injuries as a result of being kicked in the head by Sharif’s associates, but the Garda Ombudsman is investigating, as is standard protocol when someone takes ill while in custody.

Sharif’s associates have since been arrested in connection with the assault on his attackers. The pair are aged in the early 20s and are of foreign descent.

Sources say Sharif’s associates and the Crumlin men have been involved in a feud linked to low-level drug dealing in Rathmines and surrounding areas. There have been several incidents linked to that feud over recent weeks and gardai fear the latest incident will only escalate things.

Sharif’s family home in Firhouse was targeted in a gun attack last May.

Dary Sharif and Gavin Quinn

The house was sprayed with gunfire while his innocent mother Zhyan Sharif and her daughter were inside. Luckily, neither were injured in the attack.

In February 2009, Dublin District Court ordered gardai to return more than €3,000 they seized from Ms Sharif, believing it was her other son Rowen’s “drug money”.

Gardai told the court they believed Rowen Sharif was involved in the sale of drugs and that the cash was the proceeds of drug dealing.

Ms Sharif said it was her money which had been loaned to her by another person.

The court heard how gardai searched a home at Rushbrook Court in Templeogue with a warrant under the Misuse of Drugs Act and found €3,020 in Rowen Sharif’s bedroom.

During the court hearing, a garda sergeant said: “I believe the money is linked to the sale and distribution of controlled drugs in the Templeogue area.

“I believe Ms Sharif is an honourable woman, but I believe she is hiding her son’s activities. In this case, the explanations given by everyone were so outrageous, they did not add up.”

Judge William Early said while gardai “may well have suspicions”, Ms Sharif’s was the only evidence as to ownership and she did not have to prove conclusively it was hers.

The money was returned to Ms Sharif, who is a well-respected Iraqi Kurd who has lived in Ireland since 1988. She was the founder of the Kurdish-Irish society and was centrally involved in the development of a school in south Dublin to educate Kurdish children in their own culture and language.

However, Dary Sharif has links to a number of young criminal figures, including Gavin Quinn, who are trying to follow in the footsteps of ‘Fat’ Freddie Thompson.

Quinn, who sources describe as a dangerous and reckless young thug, is currently serving a six-year jail term with 18 months suspended after being caught by gardai with a sawn-off rifle and a knife on separate occasions during April and May 2012.

He was wearing a stab-proof vest and had a knife hidden in his boxer shorts when gardai arrested him in April 2012.

Sharif was also friendly with Paul Kavanagh, who was shot dead in Drumcondra last month.

Following Kavanagh’s murder he wrote online: “Can’t believe ur gone mate the best go young… Life so short ya never no wats around the corner so spend all the time u can wit ur loved ones still can’t believe he’s gone.”